Eset, a company specializing in cybersecurity, has discovered nine applications on the Play Store that showed deceptive ads on the smartphone

They looked like harmless apps to turn the smartphone into a remote control , but they were not so harmless and they were removed from the Play Store. There are nine fake applications reported in recent days to Google by ESET , the company that develops the well-known Nod32 antivirus, because once installed they filled the user’s cell phone with such an invasive advertising that the device was almost unusable.

The applications are all ” remote controller ” apps, that is, apps used to use the smartphone to control the TV , the air conditioner or any other device that can be controlled with a wireless connection. Their names are: Remote control for TV and home electronics , Remote control , TV remote controller , Remote for Air conditioner , TV remote controlling , Remote for television for free , Air conditioner remote control , Universal TV remote controller , Remote control for the car . They are all from the Tols4TV developer and have been downloaded by at least 8 million users before being removed from the official Google store.

Remove these fake apps right now from your Android devices:

Remote control for TV and home electronics , Remote control , TV remote controller , Remote for Air conditioner , TV remote controlling , Remote for television for free , Air conditioner remote control , Universal TV remote controller , Remote control for the car .

Android application false: what are the dangers for the smartphone

These are completely false applications : none of them carried out the remote control functions promised before installation. Instead they did something else: some were running in the background, making it difficult for the user to deactivate them, others, while not loading in the background, once they were launched were impossible to use because any user input responded with a full-screen banner ad. These 9 fake apps. Moreover, they were not the only ones among those on the Play Store to behave this way: last week another antivirus company, Trend Micro, reported 85 that were completely similar. In this case the two developers of the apps were Alger Games and Kodev. Google responded to the reports by deleting all the apps from these developers from the Play Store.

Given the large amount of fake apps on the official Google store , there was no lack of criticism of Big G due to the lack of control over developers and individual apps. Both ESET and Trend Micro recommend that you pay close attention to the applications you download and install on your smartphone. The two computer security companies suggest to read very well the reviews released by users to the app , to check the permissions required by the app before installing it, to keep updated the Android operating system and to install a good antivirus for mobile devices.

Joseph

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